


The Portrait

by baroque_mongoose



Category: Girl Genius
Genre: Gen, Male-Female Friendship, Mental Health Issues, POV First Person
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-01
Updated: 2014-11-01
Packaged: 2018-02-23 12:35:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2547677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/baroque_mongoose/pseuds/baroque_mongoose
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Violetta helps Mr Wooster to revive his old interest in drawing, out of concern for his mental health.  Naturally, Krosp wants to sit for a portrait.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Portrait

“You're doing it again, Wooster,” said Violetta.

I extracted my hand rather sheepishly from my hair. “I'm trying to stop,” I replied. “I mean, really, there's no point in looking polished and elegant from the neck down if my hair's always a mess.”

“I know you are,” she said, with a smile. “That's why I told you. But I do think we need to start addressing the underlying problem rather than the symptom. You wouldn't rumple your hair all the time if you weren't permanently worried.”

“Violetta,” I protested, “not only are we helping to escort the Lady Heterodyne across Europa, with all the obvious dangers that that involves, but I am also constantly trying to balance three sets of loyalties...”

“Three?” she interrupted.

“The authorities back home, Master Gil, and the Lady Heterodyne, obviously.”

“Yeah... I kind of thought as much, but I'm glad to hear you say it out loud,” said Violetta. “You've always been good to Agatha, but... well, you know.” She looked embarrassed. “I don't mean I don't trust you. Hell, there's not many people I'd trust more, if it came down to the wire. But Agatha's my friend. You know what I'm saying?”

“Yes,” I replied. “You wanted to be certain that I was loyal to her for her own sake, not just because of the other two. And I am, although... well, it's a headache sometimes, as I'm sure you're well aware yourself.”

“Oh, I know,” said Violetta, with a smile of fellow-feeling. “She's not easy to deal with sometimes. But, still, I wouldn't want to change her.”

“Well, anyway,” I continued. “Immediate danger, three sets of loyalties, and then the fact that I am extremely well informed across the wider picture. Of course, even then I don't have all the information I want, but I have to concede that may be a good thing. If I knew everything I might possibly need to know, I suspect I'd be as mad as a spark. As it is... well, as it is, I know quite enough to be on the edge of a panic attack a good deal of the time.”

“I thought as much,” said Violetta decisively. “Wooster, that's dangerous, and not just for you. I'm not saying you don't need to be well informed – that's your job, after all – but you need better skills for coping with that, and you need them urgently. Ever been suicidal?” she asked, abruptly.

I blinked. “Yes.”

“Recently?”

“How recently?” I hedged.

“Like, in the last week?”

I looked away. “Yes.”

“Next time that happens,” she said, “I want you to come and tell me. I don't care if it's three in the morning, and I don't care what Zeetha thinks. Neither should you. We need you alive here.”

“I always win,” I pointed out.

“Clearly you do. You're still alive. But you've got to win every time, and your brain weevils have only got to win the once. You're playing Russian roulette, Wooster, and I don't like it. It has to stop.”

“I'm not doing it intentionally,” I protested.

“Nobody said you were. Does anyone? Does anyone ever ask for that kind of thing? I doubt it.” Her eyes blazed. “That thing in your head that's your worst enemy... tell it it's got a new enemy now. One that won't listen to it. Me.”

“I'm grateful,” I said. The words did not adequately express how I felt.

“Yeah, well, you need to know you're not on your own. You should have said something earlier. You wouldn't have told me now, if we hadn't been good friends and I hadn't startled you into it.”

“The others have quite enough to worry about, without bothering themselves about me,” I said. “As I just said, I always win, so there seemed no point in bringing them in on it.”

“But you were grateful when I brought myself in,” Violetta reminded me.

“Yes. Well... I know you won't tell the others.”

“I won't. Unless I have to. If you ever get to a point where I think you're not safe to be left alone, I shall have someone else bunk with you and I shall have no hesitation about explaining why. It had better be Krosp; aside from the fact that he's male, he's got some pretty direct methods.”

“Krosp,” I said. “I can see it now. I take out a gun to shoot myself, he bites me in the toe.”

“About right. So don't you get to the point where I have to Krosp you.”

“That may well be an effective threat,” I said, half smiling.

“Good. But Krosp's definitely an emergency measure; you need some coping mechanisms.” She frowned. “Don't I remember you telling me you used to do a bit of sketching in Paris?”

“I did, but I was never very good at it,” I replied.

“But you enjoyed it, didn't you?”

“Oh, yes, very much,” I said. “I only really stopped when I went to work for Master Gil. The hours were usually quite long, and things could, well, get a little fraught in the lab at times...”

She rolled her eyes. “I bet they could. Half your problem is you've spent too much of your life around sparks. And you know what? I can so relate.”

“I couldn't possibly disagree with that, but nonetheless, there is little I can do at the moment to change that situation,” I replied.

“Well, we can possibly do something to mitigate it,” she said. “I can draw. Technically I am a young lady, and all young ladies are taught to draw, though goodness only knows why. So, if you like, I'll give you some lessons. Then, when you get stressed, you can go off and draw something. It's very absorbing, and it'll take your mind off things and calm you down.”

“That's a very good idea,” I said. “Thank you, Violetta. I really appreciate that.”

She gave me a sideways look. “Well. You know I'd fight for you in a physical battle. This is just the same thing, only slower and without all the yelling.”

So, from that point on, I had drawing lessons. Violetta, true to her word, kept quiet about my occasional suicidal impulses, but she did tell the others that I was learning to draw to help me stay a little calmer, which I was happy with. That was the right angle, as it immediately made them supportive of both of us. Zeetha offered to sit for my first portrait from life, and was remarkably kind when I made rather a hash of it. She sat again the following day, in fact, and I did a great deal better, having learned from my mistakes. Lady Heterodyne also offered to sit, but I replied that, if she did not mind, I should leave her till I had progressed a little further, since I was not confident about drawing her spectacles.

And then there was Krosp.

I think Krosp had a lot of opinions about my first portrait of Zeetha, but I also saw the way Violetta was looking at him. I will admit I was grateful for that. I can take criticism, and I very often do; but I do not need a hatchet job when I am still learning. The second portrait, though, was very different. Krosp actually liked it. In fact, I got the distinct impression that he liked it better than Zeetha did, and she was certainly not unhappy with it.

“Yeah,” he said. “That's not bad at all, Wooster. A hell of a lot better than yesterday. I love the eyes. You've made her look really dangerous.”

“I wasn't specifically going for dangerous,” I admitted.

“Ah, but you see what's there,” said Zeetha, with a grin. She was still teasing me, but much more affectionately than her usual wont. I begin to wonder if my constant tension annoys her; if so, that is yet another excellent reason to try to reduce it.

“I think,” said Krosp grandiloquently, “you may be ready to attempt to draw Me.”

I decided this was a ball that required some adroit fielding. “I think it might be wise if I practised on one or two lesser felines before I try drawing Your Majesty,” I replied, with a smile. I did indeed have my tongue firmly in my cheek, and Krosp was well aware of that, but I was still making a serious point.

“I believe there is a ginger tom round here,” said Krosp, in the tones of one who had just barely deigned to notice. I knew very well he had noticed. I'd _seen_ the pair of them fighting. What was more, the ginger tom had come out of that encounter very creditably.

“Very well,” I said. “I'll go and find him, then.”

“Good idea,” said Violetta. “I'll just give you a few basics on drawing animals before you do.”

I spent a difficult, but nonetheless surprisingly happy, couple of hours trying to draw the ginger tom. As you would expect from any cat who could hold his own against Krosp in a scrap, he was no lap cat. He was a big, tough, scarred old warrior with one eye and only half an ear, and he was not inclined to take nonsense from humans, where “nonsense” clearly included an earnest young Englishman following him around with a sketch pad. But... well, I _am_ a spy, and if I couldn't outwit a disreputable old tomcat, I might as well hand in my papers now, retire to Bath and keep bees. In the end I managed several reasonable thumbnail sketches without his having the slightest idea of it, and worked one of them up into a satisfactory drawing.

Violetta was pleased when I showed her the results, and so was Krosp, although he could not refrain from a few cutting remarks about the general villainy of my chosen artistic subject. I had no problems with that, having by now concluded that villainous cats were a good deal of fun to draw. Perhaps I could make a decent portrait of Krosp after all.

He sat for me the next day, and I must confess I was a little nervous. Krosp's tongue is at least as sharp as his claws. However, Violetta was on hand throughout, ostensibly so that I could ask for any advice I needed. That was a very diplomatic fig leaf. I knew, and I'm sure Krosp knew, that she was really there to make sure he behaved himself; but, of course, one cannot tell the Emperor of Cats such a thing outright, even if it is perfectly obvious.

However, everything went very smoothly for quite a while. I established a basic outline without difficulty, then started drawing in the details. The eyes worked well at the first try; Violetta says I am good at eyes, and I suppose that is reasonable, considering how much attention I need to pay to them in the course of duty. The nose took a few attempts. Cat noses are not the easiest thing to draw, but I eventually got one down that was recognisably Krosp's. I then set to work on the mouth.

“How long's this going to take?” Krosp demanded.

“If you don't mind,” I said, “I'm just trying to draw your mouth at the moment.”

He ignored the hint. “Oh. So how much more have you got to draw?”

“Well, quite a lot,” I replied. “Most of your face is looking quite good now, but there's that splendid coat...”

“You mean I've got to sit here while you draw all the braid and buttons? B...”

Violetta coughed on cue.

“...that for a game of soldiers,” Krosp concluded. “I'm taking it off.”

“Oh, no, you don't, Krosp,” said Violetta firmly. “You started with it on, and if you move you'll ruin the pose. Mr Wooster's not experienced enough yet to draw in the remaining details when you're in another position. And, besides, he's got the outline of the coat now, and it looks very nice.”

“You didn't tell me it was going to take all this time,” he grumbled.

“You should have known,” said Violetta. “You were there when he drew Zeetha.”

“Yes, but that was... I mean, Zeetha wasn't all covered in gold braid,” Krosp pointed out. “She was wearing her boyfriend's old T-shirt. Stripes are dead easy. Even I could draw them.”

“What, over Zeetha's contours?” asked Violetta.

She had a point. Zeetha is, shall we say, exceedingly contoured, and getting the stripes exactly right had not been as easy as one might think.

“Krosp,” I said, “if you would mind keeping quiet for just a few minutes, it would make it very much easier to draw your mouth.”

“Hmpf,” said Krosp, but he subsided into silence for a little while.

“Maybe just suggest the gold braid, Wooster,” said Violetta diplomatically. “Gold braid's a really good exercise, but we can always do that later separately. It doesn't require a life portrait to practise it.”

“Very well,” I agreed. “I don't want to bore my subject.”

“You already have,” said Krosp mercilessly.

“Krosp!” said Violetta, in a warning tone.

“Well. All this messing around with a pencil. Now if we were _really_ intelligent people, we'd have asked the Lady Heterodyne to build an iconograph, then you could have taken some photographs and Wooster could have worked from those all he liked.”

“The whole purpose of this exercise, if you recall, Krosp, is to help Mr Wooster calm down,” said Violetta. “The last thing he needs right now for that is another spark invention.”

“I concur,” I said, with feeling.

“Yeah, well,” said Krosp. “Are you anywhere near finished yet?”

I squinted at the portrait, added a few more curls to my suggestions of braid, retouched a button or two, squinted again, and nodded. “It's done,” I said. “Obviously, I could have done a better job if you'd been more patient, but...”

“Well, let's see it, then!” said Krosp.

I turned it round to face him.

“Wooster,” he said, severely. “You have made me look really bad-tempered.”

“Yeah,” said Violetta. “Great work, Wooster. It's an excellent likeness!”


End file.
